Third, wherever Germany in Eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen were created to murder Jews and political opponents in mass shootings. Finally, Jews and Romani were ordered to be live in overcrowded ghettos, there they were then transported by freight train to extermination camps. Extermination camps were camps that were built by Nazi Germany, during the World War II, that were designed to kill millions of people by gassing and extreme work under terrible living conditions. The Nazis were not alone in this effort. Parish churches and the Interior Ministry supported the genocide by presenting birth records showing who was Jewish; the Post Office delivered the deportation and denaturalization orders; the Finance Ministry took away Jewish property; German businesses fired Jewish workers and took away stock that belonged to the Jews.
This ulitmately potrays the brutality of the Nazis, which effectively contributed to their consolidation of power. After to the Reichstag fire on the 27th of February, the police were given the powers to detain suspects for an indifinate period without reference to the courts. This allowed the Nazi’s to justify the arrest, imprisonment and often torture
In 1937 Stalin began the purge of the military, accusing them of spying for Nazi Germany. In the eve of the war, 65% of the upper command was eliminated. In July 1937, the Politburo passed a resolution condemning ‘Anti-Soviet Elements’ which included scientists, artists, writers and musicians. In essence, anyone could be arrested, as the resolution was based on a quota system. Finally, in 1938, Bukharin and Rykov were executed after being
The police, helped by the SS and the Gestapo, tried to prevent all open opposition to the regime. (Lowe, 2005) Hitler ordered the SS to murder suspected SA officers on the Night of the Long Knives on June 13 1934 to ensure his absolute control of the party. The judges of the courts were Nazis, and they were not fair and impartial to the trials. Hitler’s opponents, mainly comprised Communists, Social Democrats, Catholic priests and Protestant pastors were arrested by the Gestapo and many of them were sent to concentration camps. In Nazi Germany the police were allowed to arrest anyone they suspected to be a threat to the party and anyone who openly opposed Nazi in public would be tortured, even to death.
The aim of Night of Long Knives was to eliminate all who Hitler perceived as a threat to Germany and his cause like leaders of the SA and other ‘enemies’ like communists and Jews. The SA were seen as thugs that tainted the image of Hitler, communists were seen as a major threat as they believed in equality of all people while also appealing to the working class and Jews were seen as inferior to the purity of German race, all these factors contributed to the atrocities as Hitler looked to establish himself as Fuhrer. Following the Night of Long Knives, Hitler made it clear that he was the supreme autocratic ruler of Germany, he had complete control as he was able to get away with his evil act and had the power derived from his rise to dictatorship to decide whether people lived or died for his own benefit. The fact that Hitler was beginning to fear his place and revolt from the SA army is supported by SA
The Gestapo had the power to arrest and imprison people without trial and torture. They tried to find anyone who disliked the Nazis, they even got children to report their parents if they said anything bad about the Nazis. They used a lot of media to control Germany including films, radio, newspapers, mass rallies, books, theatre and music. All films had to show Nazis in a good way and their enemies in a bad way. Newspapers
People could be |(autarky) | | |arrested on suspicion of anti-government | | |In order to allow the Nazis to gain full |activities and held indefinitely in prison. |Trade unions were banned and strikes | |control of the Reichstag, he dissolved | |outlawed. Union leaders were also sent to | |parliament and called for new elections. |Courts of Law were run by the Nazis and only|Concentration Camps. | | |Nazi supporters could become judges, hence a| | |Before the new elections, the
Concentration camps in Nazi Germany Concentration camps in Nazi Germany served a number of purposes. First, these camps were used to jail those who opposed Hitler’s government or were thought to threaten it. Second, knowledge of what life was like in a concentration camp was allowed to leak out – or came out when someone was released. The fear of ending up in such a camp was sufficient for a great many Germans to openly declare their loyalty to Hitler even if this was not the case. Therefore for the Nazi leaders, concentration camps served the dual purpose of controlling the majority of the population because of the fear they engendered and also locking away those who crossed the line- a line imposed by the Nazi government.
Within days of taking power Hitler banned all other political parties. The normal democratic right to oppose or protest against government was not going to be allowed. The Gestapo made it their business to find out about Nazi opponents. They tapped phones, opened letters and spied on suspects. A network of Nazi informers passed on information to them.
But not just the Jews were involved in the Holocaust. Those with mental or physical disabilities were sent to a “hospital” were they were told they would be getting cared for but instead they were murdered with lethal injections, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, trade unionists, political opponents, Poles and Soviet prisoners of war were sent to the concentration camps. Hitler wanted a country with a race of Aryan. They had blonde hair and blue eyes; Hitler wanted to get rid of anyone that stood in the way of this happening. Hitler used propaganda to convince the people of Germany that it was the Jews that were the result of all their problems.